Tag Archives: GOLDEN VEINS

Well, it’s hard to be believe, but we’ve already reached the halfway mark of this little journey we are calling “Golden Veins Singles Club.” If you thought the first half was great, just wait until you hear what’s coming up….

Anyway, let’s see what Greg has to say about the two tracks…

“BEING STRANGLED”
I don’t have much to say about “Being Strangled”; it’s mainly Scott’s baby. Micah, another stalwart of the Des Moines music scene sings backing vocals and plays guitar on this one. It’s a great song…it has a palpable overcast day feeling. I like singing someone else’s words and melodies, and I think Scott writes really good lyrics and melody. He comes at it in a different way than I do.“US MERE MORTALS”
One night while screwing around with beats and keyboards, we came up with the foundation for “Us Mere Mortals”. I made the initial beat and put in the harp notes, Ryan added the keyboard trills and Scott basically wrote the other two sections of the song. I tried writing words and melody to the whole song, and we even thought about getting in someone to rap over a part, but ultimately we felt the song worked best with main vocals saved to the very end. Scott also added in the various spoken-word samples. Hopefully the cumulative effect of these elements makes up, at least in some part, for the lack of rapping.

Also included with this single is a brutal remix by our very own Matt Bad, as well as fantastic artwork by Michelle Holley.

Golden Veins – New Single: ” Radio Prohibidas”
“Radio Prohibidas“, the fifth single, is a whispered warning over a jungle campfire, with tribal drums and ominous chanting serving to enhance the song’s foreboding air of menace. Backed with this, “Never Know”’s atmospheric verses mix with its strum und drang choruses to create a cathartic ode to realization and resignation, made all the more powerful through the accompanied vocal stylings of the amazing Skye Carrasco.

As a public service this holiday season, I’ve dug through the archives of Sound of the Noising Machine to bring you some Christmas-centric highlights from the last several years. Use this as a one-stop shop for all your Yuletide needs and whatnot. The list:

Alright Sound of the Noising Machine readers, it’s that time of year again. Christmas Carolz time!!! Here’s my third installment of some holiday songs I like, some new, some old, some covers, some originals. And “Merry Christmas (Don’t Forget To Write)” by my band, Golden Veins! Here are the previous entries:

A sigh to a scream, “I’ll Take The Bullet For You”, the fourth single, is an anthemic, guitar-laden plea for love and understanding, no matter the cost. The b-side, “Zenith/Nadir,” is an atmospheric instrumental that will take you from the dark side of the moon through a black hole and back in three minutes and change.

And a reminder to those of you who might not know what Golden Veins Singles Club is:

The first recordings from Golden Veins won’t be released as a traditional album, but will instead take the form of a year-long digital project dubbed the Golden Veins Singles Club. Every month, a new “digital 45” will be released, featuring two brand-new songs as well as a remix of the a-side. In addition to purchasing singles individually, there are also four membership options available, which offer additional bonus materials and merchandise.

In the giving spirit of the holiday season, Golden Veins presents “Merry Christmas (Don’t Forget To Write)”; a comic/melancholic ode to Christmas alone and on the cheap, complete with synths and fa la las. A free song for all, regardless if you’ve been bad or good.

Here’s Ryan C. Meier from Golden Veins with some insight into the song’s creation:

Back in the winter of ’04, I was teaching English in Japan. It was at that time I realized just how ingrained Christmas is in US society and all the little details that make Christmas time feel like Christmas time. There was no four-day weekend at the end of November, no hustle and bustle in department stores, and no constant barrage of holiday songs playing over the loudspeakers in grocery stores. And frankly, the decorations that were up in public seemed kind of awkward and empty. I even had to work until 10 pm on Christmas Eve!

So for that month of December, I found myself feeling quite strange, as I knew Christmas was approaching, yet feeling no different from, say, the month of March. This song was the result of that month and I actually wrote and recorded it on my handy 8-track with the intent of sending it to my friends and family back home, but for whatever reason, never quite completed it.

Please enjoy this free download gift from us to you, and keep checking in for more Singles Club info!
– Greg